LETTERS OF
THE BLESSED THEODORET
BISHOP OF CYRUS
LETTERS CXXI TO CL

CXXI. To Anatolius the patrician.(2)

The Lord who overlooks and governs all things has shewn both the apostolic
truth of my doctrines, and the falsehood of the slander laid at my door. For
the writings sent from the right godly and holy lord Leo, archbishop of Great
Rome, to Flavianus of holy memory and to the rest assembled at Ephesus, are
entirely in harmony with what I myself have written and have always preached
in church. So soon therefore as I had read them, I praised the loving-kindness
of the Lord, in that He had not wholly forsaken the churches, but had protected
the spark of orthodoxy; or--shall I not rather say?--not a spark, but a very
great torch, such as might enkindle and enlighten the world; for he has truly,
in his writings, observed the apostolic stamp, and in them we have found at
once what has been delivered by the holy and blessed prophets and apostles,
and their successors in the preaching of the Gospel, and moreover the holy
Fathers assembled at Nicaea. By these I confess that I abide, and indict all
who hold other doctrines as guilty of impiety. Side by side with these writings
of mine I have set one of the letters sent by him to Ephesus, to the end that
when your excellency reads them you may remember the words which I have often
spoken in church, may recognise the harmony of the doctrines, and may bate
the utterers of the lie as well as those who have set up their new heresy in
opposition to the doctrines of the Apostle.

CXXII.(1) To Uranius(2) bishop of Emesa.

I have
been greatly delighted that we who correspond in character should have corresponded
by letter. But
I
do not quite see what you mean by saying "Are
not these my words?" If it were said only for the sake of salutation,
I am not annoyed at it; but if it is intended to remind me of the advice which
recommended silence, and of the so-called oeconomy,(3) I am very much obliged,
but I do not accept the suggestion. For the divine Apostle charges us to take
quite the opposite course. "Be instant in season and out of season."(4)
And the Lord says to this very spokesman, "Be not afraid, but speak"(5)
and to Isaiah, "Cry aloud, spare not"(8) and to Moses "Go down,
charge the people"(7) and to Ezekiel "I have made thee a watchman
unto the house of Israel," and it shall be "if thou warn not the
wicked,"(8) and the like: for I think it needless to write at length to
one who knows. Not only therefore are we not distressed at having spoken freely,
but we even rejoice and are glad, and laud Him who has thought us worthy of
these sufferings; aye and call on my friends to encounter the same perils.

If they
know that we do not keep the apostolic rule of the faith, but swerve to the
right hand or
the left,
let them hate us; let them join the opposite
side; let them be ranked with them that are at war with us. But if they bear
witness to our holding the right teaching of the gospel message, we hail them
with the cry, "Do you too 'stand having your loins girt about with truth,
... and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace,'"(1)
and so on, for it is said that virtue comprises not only temperance, righteousness,
and prudence, but also courage, and that by means of courage the rest of its
component parts are preserved. For righteousness needs the alliance of courage
in its war against wrong; temperance vanquishes intemperance by the aid of
courage. And for this reason the God of all said to the prophet "The just
shall live by his faith, and if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure
in him."(2) Shrinking he calls cowardice. Hold fast then, my dear friend,
to the apostolic doctrines, for "He that shall come will come, and will
not tarry,"(3) and "He shall render to every man according to his
deeds,"(4) for "the fashion of this world passeth away,"(5)
and the truth shall be made manifest.

CXXIII. To the same.

Your letter
was a long one, and a pleasant one, and it shews how warm and genuine is
your affection.
So delighted
am I with it that I am not at all sorry
for having erroneously conjectured the meaning of the beginning of your former
one. For my misapprehension of the intention of your letter has disclosed your
brotherly love, made plain the sincerity of your faith, and shewn your zeal
for the true religion. We have indeed shared between us the words and the trials
of the prophet; your holiness has used the words; I am buffeted by the hurricane
and billows, and against the towers of the ship I exclaim in his words "They
that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy."(6) Perhaps He who
is Jonah's Lord and mine will grant that I too may rise and be released from
the monster. But if the surge continue to boil I trust that even thus I shall
enjoy the divine protection, and learn by my own experience how His strength
is "made perfect in weakness,"(7) for He has measured the peril by
my infirmity. The divine prophet whom I have mentioned was flung into the sea
by his shipmates one and all, but I am granted the consolation of your holiness,
and of other godly men. For them and for your godliness I pray that the blessing
bestowed upon the excellent Onesiphorus may be yours, for you have not blushed
at my gibes; nay rather you have shared in my afflictions for the faith's sake.

And one thing which I wish you to know is that, though other godly bishops
have sent me their bounty, I have declined to receive it;--not from any want
of respect to the senders, God forbid;--but because hitherto food convenient
for me has been provided by Him Who gives it even to the ravens without stint.
In the case of your reverence I have acted differently, for really the warmth
of your affection has overcome what has hitherto been my fixed principle. For
be well assured, thy godly friend, that ever since friendship grew up between
us the fire of our love has been kindled to greater heat.

CXXIV. To the learned Maranas.(1)

I too am distressed at the calamities of the Church, and wail over the storm
that is raging; for myself I am glad to be quit of agitation, and to be enjoying
a calm which is delightful to me. As to the men whom your learning states to
be still carrying on their iniquities, the day is not far distant when they
will pay the penalty of their present rash lawlessness. All things are governed
by the Lord of all with weight and rule, and whenever any fall away into unbounded
iniquity His long suffering comes to an end, and He then acts as Judge and
appoints punishment. Foreseeing this I pray that they may cease from their
license that I may not be compelled to weep once more for them as I behold
them undergoing chastisement.

Your excellency I can never forget, and I beg our common Master to fill your
house with blessing.

I know
the strength and stability of your faith, and have been filled with the greatest
possible
delight, for,
since we worshippers of the eternal Trinity
constitute one body, it is only natural that together with the members that
are sound the rest of the members should rejoice. So says the divine Apostle; "Whether
one member be honoured all the members rejoice with it."(2) I therefore
rejoice with you in your struggles on behalf of the apostolic doctrines and
your following of the famous Naboth in more excellent things. Naboth for his
vineyard's sake suffered most unrighteous slaughter, because he would not give
up the heritage of his fathers. You are fighting not for vineyards, but for
divine doctrines, and reject this new-fangled and spurious heresy as blackening
the brightness of the teaching of the gospel; you do not suffer the number
of the blessed Trinity to be diminished or increased. For it is diminished
by those who ascribe the passion of the only begotten to the Godhead; it is
increased by those who have the audacity to introduce a second son. You believe
in one only begotten, as you do in one Father and in one Holy Ghost. In the
only begotten made flesh you behold the assumed nature which He took from us
and offered on our behalf. The denial of this nature puts our salvation far
from us; for if the Godhead of the only begotten is impassible, as the nature
of the Trinity is impassible, and we refuse to acknowledge that which is by
nature adapted to suffer, then the preaching of a passion which never happened
is idle and vain. For if that which suffers has no existence how could there
be a passion? We declare that the divine nature is impassible;--a doctrine
confessed by our opponents as well as by ourselves. How then could there be
a passion when there is no subject capable of suffering? The great mystery
of the oeconomy will appear an appearance, a mere seeming instead of the reality.
This is the fable started by Valentinus, Bardesanes, Marcion and Manes. But
the teaching handed down to the churches from the beginning recognises, even
after the incarnation, one Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and confesses the same
to be everlasting God, and man made at the end of days; made man not by the
mutation of the Godhead but by the assumption of the manhood. For suppose the
divine nature to have undergone mutation into the human nature, then it did
not remain what it was; and if it is not what it was, they who have these objects
of worship are false in calling Him God. We, on the contrary, recognise the
only begotten Son of God to be immutable as God, and Son of the very God. For
we have learnt from the divine Scripture that being in the form of God He took
the form of the servant;(1) and took on Him the seed of Abraham, not was changed
into Abraham's seed; and shared just as we do both in flesh and blood and in
a soul immortal and immaculate. Preserving these for our sinful bodies He offered
His sinless body and for our souls His soul free from all stain. It is for
this reason that we have the hope of the common resurrection for the race will
assuredly share with its first fruits, and as we have shared with Adam in his
death, so too with Christ our Saviour shall we be sharers in His life. This
the divine Apostle has plainly taught us, for "now" he says "is
Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept.
For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead
for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."(1)

I write thus not to inform you but to remind you. I have tried to be brief,
but I fear I have transgressed the limits of a letter. I was however urged
to write by the very reverend and godly presbyter and archimandrite Mecimas,
who, in obedience to the law of love, has undertaken so long a journey, told
us of your excellency's zeal, and begged us to inflame it by a letter. I have
therefore granted his supplication, and written my letter, and I implore the
Lord of all to keep you safe in the faith and make stronger than him who sifts
us.(2)

CXXVI. To the Bishop Sabinianus.(3)

I praised your holiness on your quitting the envied see. Once it was venerable;
now it is ridiculous, for we have made it a thing to be bought and sold. I
was astounded to hear of your having appealed to the men who ejected you. You
ought to have done just the contrary, and, on being invited to grasp the tiller,
to have declined to do so, on the ground that your shipmates had become your
foes. Are you not aware, most godly sir, what our Saviour, through His sacred
apostles, taught us to preach? Do you not know what the heirs of the apostolic
doctrines have just now laid down as objects of worship? For who of the old
teachers from the time when the message was first preached down to the period
of the darkness that now obtains, ever listened to any one preaching one nature
of flesh and Godhead or dared at any time to call the nature of the only begotten
passible? These doctrines in our day are by some men openly and boldly uttered,
while among others their utterance is overlooked, and by silence men become
participators in the blasphemy. What then, may well be asked, is the proper
course to be taken by, those who abominate such doctrines? They have, I should
reply, two alternatives before them; they may either come to close quarters,
and prove the spuriousness of the doctrines, or they may decline communion
with their opponents as openly impious.

I, indeed, have received the wrong done me as a divine blessing. I do not
mean that I have thanked them that have wronged me; how could I thank fratricides,
and men who have become followers of Cain?

But I praise my Master for thinking me worthy of the lot of them that suffer
wrong, for separating me from wrong-doers and blasphemers, and for giving me
my most delightful rest.

CXXVII. To Jobius, presbyter and archimandrite.(1)

The patriarch Abraham won a victory in his old age.(2) The great Moses was
now an old man when, so long as he stretched out his hands in prayer, he vanquished
Amalek.(3) The divine Samuel(4) was an old man when he put the aliens to flight.
These are emulated by your venerable old age. In our wars for true religion's
sake you are playing the man, and championing the cause of the gospel doctrines,
and putting young men in the shade by the vigour of your spirit.

I rejoice to hear it, and am glad, and long to embrace your right venerable
gray hairs. This I cannot do, for your reverence is kept at home by your years,
and I am kept in durance here by the imperial decree. But I cheat my love by
this letter, and give your piety this most loving embrace. I call upon you
in your prayers to help the churches now whelmed in the storm, and to win for
me the divine support, assailed as I am for the sake of the doctrines of the
gospel, and standing sorely in need of help from above.

CXXVIII. To Candidus, presbyter and archimandrite.(5)

I am afraid that the vigour of your godly soul has been overcome by old age,
and that you do not keep your hands stretched out as usual. So Amalek is trying
to win. May there be some to succour your weakness, as once of old Ur and Aaron
supported the hands of the law-giver, that you may overthrow Amalek and save
Israel. These are days when we specially need more earnest prayers, when Gentiles
and Jews and every heresy are at peace, and the Church alone is beaten by the
storm and surrounded by the boisterous billows.

We indeed specially need the aid of your prayers, for those whom we reckoned
to be fighting on our side are fighting on that of our foes.

CXXIX. To Magnus Antoninus the presbyter.(1)

Sailors
at night are cheered by the sight of the harbour lights, and so are they
who are in peril for
the
sake of the apostolic faith by the zeal of them
that share the faith. We have great comfort in what we hear of your godliness's
efforts on behalf of the divine doctrines, for this mind has been given you
by the Giver of all good gifts and for the safe keeping of these doctrines
you undergo every toil. Now I, comforted by your zeal, make an insignificant
return, calling on you to persevere in your divine labours, to despise your
adversaries as an easy prey, (for what is weaker than they who are destitute
of the truth?) and to trust in Him who said "I will not fail thee nor
forsake thee,"(2) and "Lo I am with you alway even unto the end of
the world. Help me too with your prayers that I may confidently say "The
Lord is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me?"(4)

CXXX. To Bishop Timotheus.(5)

Not without purpose does the supreme Ruler allow the spirits that are against
us to agitate the waves of impiety. He does so that He may try the courage
of the sailors, and, while He exhibits some men's manliness, convicts others
of cowardice, stripping the mask from the faces of some who put on an appearance
of piety, and proclaiming others as foremost fighters in the ranks of the truth.
We have seen an instance of this in the present time. The storm rose high;
some shewed their secret impiety; some abandoned the truth which they were
holding, went over to the phalanx of our foes, and now, with them, are smiting
the very men whom they used to call their chiefs. The witnesses of these things
detest the enemy and pity the deserters, but are afraid to give aid to the
victims of the attack upon the apostolic doctrines. Nay, suppose the traitors
to urge them with greater insistency, they will perhaps themselves pass over
to the side of the assailants, will give no quarter to their fellow-believers,
but will drive against them their barbs side by side with the very men whom
they accuse. They will act thus though they have been taught by the divine
Scripture that a wrong done to one's neighbour incurs punishment, while the
suffering of injustice entails great and lasting rewards.

Your own piety, your zeal for the faith, and your good will to myself, have
been proved by this agitation. Twice you have written me a letter in contempt
of all that might deter you, and have thus shewn your brotherly affection.
You have also indicated the conflict you are sustaining on behalf of the apostolic
doctrines. You ask me to tell you by letter what we ought to think and preach
concerning the passion of salvation. I have received your request with delight,
and, not indeed to give you information but only to remind one who is beloved
of God, will proceed to tell you what I have learnt from the divine Scripture
and from the Fathers who have interpreted it.

Know then,
most godly sir, that before all things it is necessary to observe the distinction
of
terms, and,
in addition to this, the cause of the divine
incarnation. Once let these be made clear, and there will be no ambiguity left
about the passion. We will therefore first, to those who endeavour to contradict
us, put this enquiry. Which of the names given to the only begotten Son of
God are anterior to the incarnation, and which posterior, or rather, connected
with the operation of the economy? They will reply that the terms anterior
are, "God the Word," "only begotten Son," "Almighty," and "Lord
of all creation"; and that the names "Jesus Christ" belong to
the incarnation. For, after the incarnation, God the Word, the only begotten
Son of God is called Jesus Christ; for "Behold" He says "unto
you is born this day Christ the Lord"(1) and because others had been called
christs, priests, kings, and prophets, lest any one should suppose Him to be
like unto them, the angels conjoined the title Lord with that of Christ, in
order to prove the supreme dignity of Him that was born. And, again, Gabriel
says to the blessed Virgin, "Behold thou shall conceive in thy womb, and
bring forth a son and shalt call His name Jesus"(1) "for He shall
save His people from their sins."(2) Before the incarnation, however,
He was never called either Christ or Jesus. For truly the divine Prophets,
in their predictions of things to come, used the words, just as they prophesied
about the birth, the cross, and the passion, when the events had not yet come
to pass. Nevertheless, even after the incarnation He is called God the Word,
Lord, Almighty, only begotten Son, Maker, and Creator. For He was not made
man by mutation, but, remaining just what He was, assumed what we are, for "Being
in the form of God," to use the words of the divine Apostle "He took
the form of a servant."(3) On this account, therefore, even after the
incarnation, He is called also by the titles which are anterior to the incarnation,
since His nature is invariable and immutable. But when relating the passion
the divine Scripture nowhere uses the term God, since that is the name of the
absolute nature. No one on bearing the words "In the beginning was the
Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God"(4) and similar expressions,
would suppose that the flesh existed before the ages, or is of one substance
with the God of the universe, or was Creator of the world. Every one knows
that these terms are proper to the Godhead. Nor would any one on reading the
genealogy of St. Matthew suppose that David and Abraham according to nature
were forefathers of God, for it is the assumed nature which is derived from
them.

Since
then these points are plain and indubitable even among extreme heretics,
and we acknowledge
both the
nature which is before the ages, and that which
is of recent time, so are we bound to recognise at once the passibility of
the flesh, and the impassibility of the Godhead, not dividing the union nor
separating the only begotten into two persons, but contemplating the properties
of the natures in the one Son. In the case of soul and body, which are of natures
contemporary and naturally united, we are accustomed to make this distinction,
describing the soul as simple, reasonable, and immortal, but the body as complex,
passible, and mortal. We do not divide the union, nor cut one man in two. Far
rather, then, in the case of the Godhead, begotten of the Father before the
ages, and of the manhood assumed of David's seed, is it becoming to adopt a
similar course, and distinctly to recognise the everlasting, eternal, simple,
uncircumscribed, immortal, and invariable character of the one nature, and
the recent, complex, circumscribed, and fluctuating nature of the other. We
acknowledge the flesh to be now immortal and incorruptible, although before
the resurrection it was susceptible of death and of passion; for how otherwise
was it nailed to the tree, and committed to the tomb? And though we recognise
the distinction of the natures, we are bound to worship one Son, and to acknowledge
the same as Son of God and Son of man, form of God, and form of a servant,
Son of David, and Lord of David, seed of Abraham, and creator of Abraham. The
union causes the names to be common, but the community of names does not confound
the natures. With them that are right-minded some names are plainly appropriate
as to God, and others as to man; and in this way both the passible and the
impassible are properly used of the Lord Christ, for in His humanity He suffered,
while as God He remained impassible. If, according to the argument of the impious,
it was in the Godhead that He suffered, then, I apprehend, the assumption of
the flesh, was supererogatory; for suppose the divine nature to have been capable
of undergoing passion, then He did not need the passible manhood. But grant
that, as even their own argument contends, the Godhead was impassible, and
the passion was real, let them beware of denying that which suffered, lest
they deny with it the reality of the passion; for if that which suffers does
not exist, then the passion is unreal. Now for any one who likes to open the
quaternion(1) of the sacred evangelists, it is easy to perceive that the divine
Scripture distinctly proclaims the passion of the body, and to learn from them
how Joseph of Arimathaea came to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus; how
Pilate ordered the body of Jesus to be delivered, how Joseph took down the
body of Jesus from the tree and wrapped the body of Jesus in the linen cloth,
and laid it in the new tomb. All this is described by the four evangelists
with frequent mention of the body. But if our opponents adduce the words of
the angel to Mary and her companions, "Come where the Lord lay,"(1)
let them be referred to the passage in the Acts which states that devout men "carried
Stephen to his burial"(2) and observe that it was not the soul, but the
body, of the victorious Stephen, to which the customary rites were paid. And
to this very day, when we approach the shrines of the victorious martyrs, we
commonly enquire what is the name of him who is buried in the grave, and those
who are acquainted with the facts reply peradventure "Julian the martyr," or "Romanus," or, "Timotheus."(3)

Very often
it is not entire bodies that are buried, but only very small remains, yet
nevertheless we
speak of
the body by the name that belongs to the whole
man. It was in this sense that the angel called the body of the Lord, "Lord," because
it was the body of the Lord of the universe. Moreover the Lord Himself promised
to give on behalf of the life of the world, not His invisible nature, but His
body. "For," He says, "the bread that I will give is my flesh
which I will give for the life of the world,"(4) and when He took the
symbol of divine mysteries, He said, "This is my body which is given for
you."(5) Or according to the version of the Apostle, "broken."(6)
In no place where He spoke of the passion did He mention the impossible Godhead.

It is therefore before all things necessary that the question should be put
to those who are endeavouring to contradict us whether they confess that the
perfect manhood was assumed by God the Word, and assert the union to have been
made without confusion. Once let these points be admitted, and the rest will
follow in due course, and the passion will be attributed to the passible nature.
I have now summed up these heads and have exceeded the limits of my letter.
I have sent also what I lately wrote at the suggestion of a very godly and
holy man of God, the lord(7) in the form of a concise instruction designed
to teach the truth of the apostolic doctrines. Should I find a good copyist,
I will also send your holiness what I have written in the form of a dialogue,(8)
extending the argument, and strengthening my positions, by the teaching of
the Fathers. I have moreover now sent a few statements of the ancient teachers,
sufficient to shew the drift of their instruction. Give me in return, most
godly sir, the succour of your prayers, that I may pass through the terrible
tempest and reach the quiet haven of the Saviour.

CXXXI. To Longinus, Archimandrite of Doliche.(1)

You have
shewn alike your zeal for the true religion, and your love for your neighbour,
both of which
are
at the present time clearly connected, for it
is for the sake of the apostolic decrees that I am being attacked, because
I refuse to give up the heritage of my fathers, and prefer to undergo any suffering
to looking lightly on the robbery of one tittle from the faith of the Gospel.
You have accepted fellowship in my sufferings, not only by comforting me by
means of your letter, but further by sending to me the very honourable and
pious Matthew and Isaac. You shall hear, I am well assured. from the lips of
the righteous Lord, "I was in prison, and ye visited me."(2) We are
small and of no account, and burdened by a great load of sins, but the Lord
is bountiful and generous. He remembers the small rather than the great, and
says, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these"(3) "which
believe in me"(4) "ye have done it unto me."(5) I pray you in
that yon are conspicuous for right doctrine, and shine by worthiness of life,
and therefore have great boldness before God, help me in your prayers, that
I may be able "to stand," to use the words of the Apostle,(6) "against
the wiles of error," escape the sins of the destroyer, and stand, though
with little boldness, in the day of the appearing before the righteous Judge.

CXXXII. To Ibas, bishop of Edessa.(7)

The Lord has taught them that suffer wrong not to be east down, but to rejoice,
and to derive consolation from the examples of old. For from the period of
the first men down to our own days we find instances of men who have been zealous
in the worship of the God of all, and vet have been wronged by those with whom
their lot was cast, and have fallen into many and grievous troubles. Of these
I would have gone through the entire list, had I not been writing to one of
accurate knowledge of the divine Scriptures. But since you, O beloved of God,
have been nurtured from your boyhood in tim divine oracles, I have thought
it needless so to do. I only ask you to cast your eyes on them, and to look
on all the kind-hearted clergy that have done wrong, with sorrow; on all that
look lightly on wrong doing, with pity; and to be sorrowful for the disquiet
of the Church. I ask you to rejoice and be glad that I am a sharer in suffering
for the sake of true religion, and to praise without ceasing Him who has imposed
this lot on me. As for honour and comfort and the dignity of sees and wretched
reputation, let us yield them to the murderers.(1)

Let us cleave only to the doctrines of the gospel, and with them, if need
be, endure any extremity of pain, and choose honourable penury rather than
wealth with its many cares.

I am not writing ill these terms in order to give you exhortation, for I know
the courage of your holiness in trouble. My object is to make my own mind known
to your piety, and to inform you that you have on your side comrades who are
gladly incurring peril for the truth's sake. I have been anxious for some time
to write thus to you, but I have been unable to find anyone to convey my letter.
Now I have met with the very honourable and pious presbyter Ozeas, a man who
is at once engaged in the battle for truth and attached to your piety. So I
write and salute your holiness, and beg you to give me both the prop of your
prayers and the comfort of a letter from you.

CXXXIII. To John, bishop of Germanicia.(2)

I have
always known, sir, that you are not unmindful of our friendship. And it has
ever been my wish
and
prayer that your piety should give heed to exact
truth, and shun the communion of traitors to true religion, ascribing to the
Supreme Ruler His care on our behalf. For indeed, while I have been silent
and inactive, He has put an end to our very keen and terrible sufferings, and
has replaced the dire tempest by this bright calm. And now that the loving-kindness
of the Lord has granted us this blessing, I find the quiet of my retreat indeed
delightful, for I feel the necessity of persuading those who have been led
away by the slanders launched against me, and of both convincing them of the
truth of the teaching of the gospels, and refuting the attack of falsehood.
When once this refutation is finished, and the victory of the truth is secured,
it is my purpose to quit public life, and withdraw to the rest that I so greatly
long for. As to the foes of the truth I cry with the prophet, "Their memorial
is perished with a noise, but the Lord shall endure for ever."(1) As to
ourselves, I sing with the Psalmist, "He sent from above, He took me,
He drew me out of many waters, He delivered me from my strong enemy."(2)

This letter is in reply to two received from your holiness, one conveyed by
Anastasius, the presbyter of Beroea, and one by the standard-bearer Theodotus.
In your last letter you mention another, but this has not been delivered. As
to my journey thither I can say nothing till I know what orders are given concerning
me by the most pious emperor. His letter has not yet arrived.

CXXXIV. To Theoctistus, Bishop of Beroea.(3)

Our Saviour,
Lawgiver, and Lord, was once asked, "What is the first commandment?" His
reply was "Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with
all thy soul, and with all thy mind." And He added "This is the first
commandment: and the second is like unto it, Thou shall love the neighbour
as thyself." Then He said further "On these two commandments bang
all the law and tim prophets."(4)

He then
who keeps these, according to the definition of the Lord, plainly fulfils
the Law; and he
who transgresses
them is guilty of transgressing the
whole Law. Let us then examine, before the exact and righteous tribunal of
our conscience, whether we have fulfilled the divine commandments. Now the
first is kept by him who guards the faith given by God in its integrity, who
abominates its assailants as enemies of the truth and hates heartily all those
who hate the beloved; and the second by him who most highly esteems the care
of his neighbour and who, not only in prosperity but also in apparent misfortunes,
observes the laws of friendship. They, on the other hand, who look after their
own safety, as they suppose, who on its account make little of the laws of
friendship and take no heed of their friends when assaulted and attacked, are
reckoned to belong to the number of the wicked and of them that are without.
The Lord of all requires better things at the hands of His disciples. "Love" He
says "your enemies, for if ye love them which love you, what reward have
ye? for the sinners and the publicans do this."(1) I, however, have not
received even such kindness as publicans receive. Publicans, do I say? I have
not even received the consolation given to murderers and wizards in their dungeons.
If every one had imitated this cruelty, nothing else would have been left then
for me in my life time but to be wasted by want, and, at my death, instead
of being committed to a tomb, to be made meat(2) for dogs and wild beasts.
But I have found support in those who care nought for this present life, but
await the enjoyment of everlasting blessings, and these furnish me with manifold
consolation. But the loving Lord "caused judgment to be heard from heaven;
the earth feared and was still, when God arose to judgment."(3) But the
wicked shall perish.(4) The falsehood of the new heresy has been proscribed,
and the truth of the divine Gospels is publicly proclaimed. I for my part exclaim
with the blessed David, "Blessed be the Lord God whet only doeth wondrous
things, and blessed be His glorious name: and let the whole earth be filled
with His glory; amen and amen."(5)

CXXXV. To Bishop Romulus.(6)

You have
reminded me of the ancient story, and remarked how the King of the Syrians,
bethinking him
of the loving
kindness of the kings of lsrael, assumed
the form of a suppliant and failed not to obtain his petition. Remember therefore,
sir, the divine wrath. God delivered Ahab to utter destruction for using mercy,
and delivered his sentence through the mouth of the prophet, saying "Thy
life shall go for his life and thy people for his people."(1) We are thus
commanded to temper mercy with justice, since not every kind of mercy is pleasing
to the God of all. The present state of affairs specially requires prudent
council; for we are contending on behalf of the divine doctrines, wherein we
have the hope of our salvation. But herein, too, may be seen the great difference
between man and man. Some men are verily infected with the common impiety;
while others, without distinction, advance at one time one doctrine, and at
another its opposite. Some who know the truth conceal it in the secret chambers
of their soul, while they preach impiety with the rest; others again who are
filled with envy have made their private ill-will an occasion of waging war
against the truth, and wreak all kinds of mischief against the prophets of
the truth. Again, there are who embrace the truth of the apostolic doctrines,
and yet because they are afraid of the power of the dominant party are too
cowed to proclaim it, and though they lament at the abundance of our misfortunes,
nevertheless side with them that set the mighty surge a-rolling. It is in this
last category that we place your reverence. We have believed you to be sound
in the divine doctrines, and think that you keep your affection for me, and
are borne along with the time for no other reason than your cowardice. Under
these circumstances though I am not writing to any of the rest, I write to
year holiness, and receive your reply. I see your drift and to some extent
I pardon your pusillanimity. But the loving Lord has now removed all occasions
of cowardice, by exhibiting the new-fangled impiety, and shewing the plain
truth of the gospels. I, even though my mouths were as many as my hairs, cannot
praise as I ought the loving-kindness of the Lord for compelling my strongest
opponents openly to preach what has been preached by me. For I have heard that
he who shares your holiness's roof, when he heard that anathemas had been published
in the great cities, ceased to imitate the crooked gait of crabs, and, after
disputing in a certain assembly about doctrines, walked in the straight road.
Never must we suit our words to the season, but ever preserve the unbending
rule of truth.

CXXXVI. To Cyrus Magistrianus.(1)

I was
very much distressed to hear of the trouble which had befallen you. How indeed
could I fail to
suffer,
making as I do your interest mine, and remembering
the apostolic law which bids us not only "rejoice with them that do rejoice,
but also weep with them that weep"?(2) Suffering itself is able to draw
even those that are at enmity with one another into sympathy.

What is
so grievous as to lose a wife; one who bore blamelessly the yoke of wedlock.
one who made
her husband's
life pleasant, one who shared the care
of the family; one who managed the household and shared in the direction of
everything; one who was ready to suggest whatever might be likely to be of
service, and to comply with the wishes of her husband? But what sorrow could
surpass the committal to the tomb of the mother at the same moment as the son
whom she bore; a son who had been carefully trained and had received a learned
education; one who, you hoped, would be the stay of your old age; buried in
the very spring of his manhood, when the down was just beginning to grow upon
his cheeks? Did we only look at the character of the calamity, it admits of
no consolation. But when we bethink us how our race is doomed to die; that
against that race the divine fiat has gone forth; that suffering is common,
for life is full of such woes; we shall bravely bear what has happened, shall
repel the assaults of despair, and shall raise that wonderful song of praise "The
Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away; the Lord hath done what seemed to him
good; blessed be the name of the Lord."(3) But we have many more reasons
for consolation. We have been distinctly taught the hopes of the resurrection,
and we look for the time when the dead shall live again. We know how the Lord
many times called death sleep. If we trust, as in truth we do, the Saviour's
words we are bound not to mourn those that have fallen asleep, even though
their sleep lasts somewhat longer than it is wont. We must await the resurrection.
We must remember that the Ruler of the world in His wisdom, and clearly knowing
as He does not the present only but the future also, guides events for our
good. A wise man who knew all this full well reasons about deaths of this kind
and says, "Yea; speedily was he taken away, lest that wickedness should
alter his understanding."(1)

Let us submit I beg you to the wise Ruler of all; let us submit to His decrees.
Whether they be pleasant or whether they be grievous, they are good and profitable,
they make men wise; for them that endure they ordain crowns.

CXXXVII. To the Archimandrite John.(2)

The blessed
David fell into several errors, which God, who wisely orders all things,
has caused
to be recorded
for the good of them that were to come after.
But it was not on their account that Absalom, parricide, murderer, impious,
and altogether vile, started his wild war against his father. The reason of
his beginning that most unrighteous struggle was because he coveted the sovereignty.
The divine David, however, when these events were coming to pass, began to
remember the wrong that he had done. I too am conscious within myself of the
guilt of many errors, but I have kept undefiled the dogmatic teaching of the
Apostles. And they who have trampled upon all laws human and divine, and condemned
me in my absence, have not sentenced me for what I have done wrong, for my
secret deeds are not made manifest to them; but they have contrived false witness
and calumny against me, or rather in their open attack upon the doctrines of
the Apostles have proscribed me for my obedience to them. "So the Lord
awaked as one out of sleep; He smote His enemies in the hinderparts and put
them to a perpetual shame."(3) Counterfeit and spurious doctrines tie
has scattered to the winds, and has provided for the free preaching of those
which He has handed down to us in the holy Gospels. To me this suffices for
complete delight. I do not even long for a city in which I have passed all
my time in hard work; all I long for is to see the establishment of the truth
of the Gospels. And now the Lord has satisfied this longing. I am therefore
very glad and happy, and I sing praises to our generous Lord, and I invite
your reverence to rejoice with the, and, with our praises, to put up the earnest
prayer that the men who say now one thing and now another and change about
to suit the hour, like the chameleons who assume the colour of the leaves,
may be strengthened by the loving-kindness of the Lord, established upon the
rocks and, of His mercy, made to pay the highest honour to the truth.

CXXXVIIl. To Anatolius the patrician.(1)

I have
cordially welcomed the rest which has fallen to my lot, and am harvesting
its beneficial and
pleasant
results. Our Christ-loving Emperor,"(2) after
reaping the empire as fruit of his true piety, has offered as first-fruits
of his sovereignty to Him that bestowed it, the calm of the storm-tossed churches,
the triumph of the invaded faith, the victory of the doctrines of the Gospel.
To these he has added the righting of the wrong done to me. Of a wrong so great
and of such a kind who ever heard? What murderer was ever doomed in his absence?
What violator of wedlock was ever condemned without a hearing? What burglar,
grave-breaker. wizard, church-robber, or doer of any other unlawful deed, was
ever prevented, when eager to appeal to the law, and slain when far away by
the sentence of his judge? In their cases nothing of the kind was ever known.
For, by our law, plaintiff and defendant are bidden to stand face to face before
the judge, while the judge has to wait for the production of plain truth, and
then and not till then, either dismiss the accused as innocent, or punish him
as being reached by the indictment. In my case the course pursued has been
just the opposite. The emperor's letter forbade me to approach the far-famed
synod, and the most righteous judges condemned me in my absence, not after
fair trial. but after extravagant laudation of the documents which were produced
to incriminate me. Neither the law of God nor shame of man staved the deed
of blood. Orders were given by the president,(3) flinging the truth to the
winds, and courting the power of the hour. He was obeyed by men who think as
I do, whose doctrines are my doctrines, and who had expressed admiration of
me and mine. None the less did that day convict some men of treachery; some
of cowardice; while to me a ground of confidence was given by my sufferings
for the truth's sake. And to me our master Christ hath granted the boon "not
only of believing on Him but also of suffering for His sake."(1) For the
greatest of all gifts of grace are sufferings for the Master's sake, and the
divine Apostle puts them even before great marvels.

In these boons I too glory, humble and insignificant as I am, and having no
other ground of boasting. And I beseech your excellency to offer on behalf
of my poor self expressions of thanksgiving to the emperor, lover of Christ,
and to the most pious Augusta,(2) clear to God, instructress of the good, for
that she has requited our generous Lord with such gifts, and has made her zeal
for true religion the Connotation and groundwork of bet sway. Besides this,
beg their godly majesties to complete the work that has been so well marked
out, and to summon a council, not, like the last, composed of a turbulent rabble,
but--kept quite clear of all of these--of men who decide on and highly value
divine things, and esteem all human affairs as of less account than the truth.
If their majesties wish to bring about the ancient peace for the churches,
and I am sure that they do, beg their pious graces to take part in the proceedings,
that their presence may overawe those of a contrary mind and the truth may
have none to gainsay her, but may herself by her own unaided powers examine
into the position of affairs, and the character of the apostolic doctrines.

I make this request to your excellency, not because I long to see Cyrus again,
for your lordship knows what a solitary town it is, and how I have somehow
or other managed to conceal its ugliness by my great expenditure on all kinds
of buildings, but to the end that what I preach may be shewn to be in agreement
with apostolic doctrines while the inventions of my opponents are counterfeit
and base. Once let this come to pass, by God's help be it spoken, and I shall
pass the remainder of my days in cheerful contentment, wherever the Master
may bid me dwell. To you who have been brought up in the true religion, and
are dowered with the wealth of goodness it is becoming to make this effort,
and by your urgent counsel to render yet more zealous our most pious emperor
and the Christ-loving Augusta, zealous already as they are to strengthen their
glorious empire by laudable and rightful energy.

CXXXIX. To Aspar, Consular and Patrician. (1)

To the other good deeds of your excellency must be added your having acquainted
our pious and most christian emperor, whom God's grace has appointed for the
blessing of his subjects, of the enormous wrong done against me, and your having
by a righteous edict annulled an edict which was nothing of the kind. Supported
by divine Providence I have made what they reckoned a punishment a means of
good, and I have welcomed my rest with delight; but none the less I have been
wrongly and illegally treated, though in no single point guilty of the errors
which the enemies of the truth slanderously laid at my door, but yet made to
suffer the penalty of the greatest criminals. Nay, my fate has been yet harder
than theirs. I was judged without a trial; I was doomed in my absence; when
forbidden by the emperor's orders to go to Ephesus I received the most righteous
sentence of my holy judges. All this has now been undone by his most serene
majesty, through the active interposition of your excellency. I, for my part,
feeling that I should be wrong to keep silent and not offer yon my thanks,
have availed myself of this letter, whereby I beseech your excellency to speak
in warm terms in my behalf both to the victorious and Christian emperor and
to the very godly and pious Augusta. On their behalf I implore our good Lord
as earnestly as lies in my power to guard their empire in security, and to
grant that it may be at once a source of loving protection for their subjects,
and of terror to their foes, and establish honourable peace for all. May your
excellency be induced to petition them completely to put an end to the agitation
of the Church, and order the assembling of the council; not, like the last,
of men who from their habits of unruliness throw the synod into confusion,
but, in peace and quiet, of members instructed in divine things, and in the
habit of confirming the apostolic decrees and rejecting what is spurious and
at variance with the truth. And I express this hope to the end that your excellency
may reap the good which such a course of conduct is likely to produce.

CXL. To the Master Vincomalus.(1)

I have been much astonished to learn that your magnificence, though quite
unacquainted with me and mine, and knowing only the wrong that had been done
me, stood up as my advocate, and left no means untried to undo the results
of the conspiracy against me. But your excellency will assuredly receive recompense
from our bountiful Lord, for He who promised to give a reward for a little
water will doubtless give greater recompense to the givers of greater gifts.

I have indeed endured such sufferings as none, or at least very few, of the
ancients have undergone, and this not only from my open foes, but, as I apprehend,
from my real friends. The former attacked me, the latter betrayed me.

Who in
the world ever heard of such a trial? Who ever commanded a criminal to be
tried in his absence
after
chaining him up at a distance of more than
five and thirty stages? What judge has ever been so savage and inhuman as not
only to try men, aye but to condemn men the sound of whose voice he has never
heard, and this in most savage and inhuman fashion? The Lord has ordered the
erring brother, who spurns advice, after a first, second and third admonition,
to be treated as "an heathen man and a publican"(2) Now these most
equitable and righteous judges have not even given to them of the same faith
with themselves the treatment which they give to heathen men and publicans.
These indeed they do see and occasionally converse with, and that with all
honour and deference where they appear to be of rank and dignity. But they
have ordered me to be cut off from home, from water, from everything. This
is the way in which they have wished to become imitators of our Father in heaven "Who
maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good and sendeth rain on the
just and on the unjust."(1) But of these men I will say no more. The tribunal
of the Lord is at hand where is required not stage pretence but the reality
of life. Now I beseech your excellency to express my thanks to the emperor,
the lover of Christ and victorious, and to the very pious and godly Augusta,
for having made true religion the firm root of their pious empire, and to implore
their majesties to make the peace of the churches firm by commanding the assembling
of a council, not • of men of violence who throw the discussion into
confusion, but of the lovers of the truth who confirm the apostolic teaching,
and repudiate this new fangled and spurious heresy. And I pray that of these
honourable endeavours you may reap the fruit at the hands of our loving Lord.

CXLI. To Marcellus, Archimandrite of the Acoemetae.(2)

Bright
is made your holiness by your goodly life, exhibiting on earth the image
of the conversation of
the
angels, but it is made still brighter by your
zeal for the apostolic faith. As keel to boat, as corner-stone to house, so
to them that choose to live in piety is the truth of the doctrines of the Gospel.
For this truth when assailed you have bravely fought, not striving to protect
it as though it were weak, but shewing your godly disposition; for the teaching
of our Master Christ is gifted with stability and strength, in accordance with
the promise of the same Saviour, "that the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it."(3) It is the loving and bountiful Lord who has thought right
that I too should be dishonoured and slain on behalf of this doctrine. For
truly we have reckoned dishonour honour, and death life. We have heard the
words of the apostle "For unto us it is given by God not only to believe
on Him, but also to suffer for His sake."(4) But the Lord arose like the
sleeper, and stopped the mouths of them that uttered blasphemy against God
and injustice against me. But He has made the tongues of the pious pour forth
their fountains in their wonted message. I, however, am gathering the delightful
fruits of rest; as I look at the agitation of the churches I am grieved, but
I rejoice and am glad at being freed from cares. I have ever been gratified
at your admirable piety, but heretofore I have not written, not from any lack
of regard for the dictates of charity, but because I have waited for some suitable
occasion. Just now, having fallen in with the most pious and prudent monks
who have been sent by your holiness on other business, I have lost no time
in carrying out my wish. I salute your godliness. I beg you in the first place
to support me with your prayers, and further to cheer me by a letter, for by
God's grace I have been attacked for the Gospel's sake.

CXLII. To the same.

I have
already addressed your reverence in another letter, and have delivered it
to your much respected
brethren.
Now again I address your holiness. I am
induced to do so both by your admirable life, and by the praiseworthy zeal
which you have shewn on behalf of the apostolic faith, fearless alike of imperial
power and of episcopal combination. For granted that the majority of the council
consented under coercion, still they did confirm the new fangled heresy by
their signatures. Your holiness, however, was shaken by none of these things,
but abided by the ancient doctrines which the Lord, by means of both the prophets
and the apostles, has taught the churches to hold. These decrees I pray that
I may preserve, and keep to the end my faith and confession in one Father,
one Son and one Holy Ghost. For the incarnation of the only begotten made no
addition to the number of the Trinity. Even after the incarnation the Trinity
is still a Trinity. This is the teaching I have received from the beginning;
this has been my faith; in this was I baptized; this have I preached; in this
have I baptized, this I continue to hold. Of them that utter a lie about the
Father the Lord has said "When he speaketh a lie he speaketh of his own,"(1)
for what is said of the teacher is appropriate to the disciples. So these men
who employ lies against me speak of their own, and do not describe what is
mine. I am comforted by my Master's words "Blessed are ye when men shall
revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely
for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven."(1)

I entreat your piety to pray that I may not have my part among the wrong doers,
but among them that suffer wrong on account of the truth of the Gospels.

CXLIII. To Andrew, Monk of Constantinople.(2)

I have never seen your piety nor have we ever communicated by letter, but
I have become warmly attached to you. What has wrought the charm and continues
to inflame it is the report unanimously brought by the tasters of your honey.
All express admiration of the orthodoxy of your faith, the brightness of your
life, the constancy of your soul, the harmoniousness of your character, the
attractiveness and sweetness of your society and all the other characteristics
of the true foster child of philosophy. For all these reasons I am attached
to your godliness, and my longing has made me even begin a correspondence;
but, my dear sir, grant me as soon as possible what I desire and let me have
written communication from you. For when friends are at a distance considerable
comfort is given them by epistolary communication. You will write to no man
of heterodox opinions, but to one nurtured in the teaching of the apostles
and preacher not of a quaternity but of a Trinity, for in reality I see little
difference in the impiety of those who have the hardihood to endeavour to contract
into one the two natures of the Only-begotten and those who endeavour to divide
our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, God the Word made man, into
two sons; if such indeed there be; I cannot think so; but Arians, Eunomians,
and Apollinarians too have ever shamelessly fabricated this slander against
the Church, and indeed laborious students may easily perceive that our far
famed Fathers,(3) lights of the churches, laboured at the hands of the foes
of the truth under this accusation which is now levelled against me by the
most excellent champions of the new fangled heresy. Our wise Lord has laid
bare their impiety, for He could not endure to confirm the unholy heresy by
His long suffering.

Be sure then, sir, that you will be writing to one of like sentiments with
your own; and of this you can easily assure yourself from my copious writings.

Write then to me in return, and again your letter, by God's leave, shall serve
to kindle affection. And before you write, give me the help of your prayers,
and beseech our good Lord to guide my feet into the right road, that I may
travel the rest of my journey in accordance with His laws. You who have won
right of access from your unstained life will easily persuade Him Who is eager
to give us His good gifts.

CXLIV. To the soldiers.(1)

Human nature is everywhere the same, but pursuits in life are many and various.
Some men prefer a sailor's career, some a soldier's; some men become athletes,
some husbandmen; some ply one craft trod some another. To pass by all other
differences, some men are zealous and diligent about divine things, and get
themselves instructed in the exact teaching of the apostolic doctrines; while
others, on the contrary, become slaves of the belly, and suppose that the enjoyment
of base pleasures is happiness. Others again are there, lying in a mean between
these two extremes, who do not exhibit this praiseworthy enthusiasm, nor embrace
a life of incontinence, but still honour the simplicity of the faith. Men who
attack the statement that some things are altogether impossible with God must
not, I apprehend, be classed with the zealous and the well instructed in divine
things, but rather either with those who have no exact knowledge of the apostolic
doctrines, or those who have been enslaved by pleasures and shift hither and
thither at the caprice of a moment, setting forth now one thing and now another.

You have
asked me to write on these points. I should prefer at the present time to
keep silence. But
in obedience
to the commandment of the Lord, "Give
to every man that asketh of time,"(2) I am constrained briefly to reply.

I say
then that the God of the universe can do all things, but that in the word "all" is
comprehended only what is right and good, for He who is naturally both wise
and good admits
of nothing that is of a contrary nature,
but only what becomes his nature. If any objectors gainsay this statement,
ask them if the God of the universe, the lawgiver of truth, can lie. If they
say that lying is possible to God, expel them from your company as impious
and blasphemous. Should they agree that lying is not possible to the God of
the universe, ask them in the second place, if He who is the fount of justice
can become unjust. Should they allow that this too is impossible to the God
of all, you must yet again enquire if the unfathomable depth of wisdom can
become unwise, God cease to be God, the Lord cease to be the Lord, the Creator
be no Creator, the Good not good but evil and the true Light not light but
its opposite. If they admit that all these things and the like are impossible
to God, you must say to them therefore many things are impossible with God;
and that their being impossible so far from being a proof of want of power,
indicates on the contrary the greatest power.

Even in
the case of our own soul, when we say that it cannot die, we do not predicate
weakness of
it, but we
proclaim its capacity of immortality. And
similarly when we confess the immutability, impassibility, and immortality
of God, we cannot attribute to the divine nature change, passion, or death.
Suppose them to urge that God can do whatever He will, you must reply to them
that He wishes to do nothing which it is not His nature to do; He is by nature
good, therefore He does not wish anything evil; He is by nature just, therefore
He does not wish anything unjust He is by nature true, therefore He abominates
falsehood; He is by nature immutable, therefore He does not admit of change;
and if He does not admit of change He is always in the same state and condition.
This He Himself asserts through the prophet. "I am the Lord I change not."(1)
And the blessed David says "Thou art the same and Thy years shall have
no end."(2) If He is the same He undergoes no change. If He is naturally
superior to change and mutation He has not become from immortal, mortal nor
from impassible, passible, for had this been possible He would not have taken
on Him our nature. But since He has an immortal nature, He took a body capable
of suffering, and with the body a human soul. Both of these He kept unstained
from the defilements of sin, and gave His soul for the sake of the souls that
had sinned, and His body for the sake of the bodies that had died. And since
the body that was assumed is described as body of the very only begotten Son
of God, He refers the passion of the body to Himself. But the four evangelists
testify that it was not the divine nature but the body which was nailed to
the cross, all teaching with one voice that Joseph of Arimathea came to Pilate
and begged the body of Jesus; that he took down the body of Jesus from the
tree and wrapped in fine linen, and laid in his own new tomb the body of Jesus;
that Mary the Magdalene came to the tomb seeking the body of Jesus and ran
to His disciples, and reported these things when she could not find the body
of Jesus.

This is
the unanimous teaching of the evangelists. But if your opponents urge that
the angels said "Come see the place where the Lord lay"(1) let
the foolish folk learn that the divine Scripture says also about the victorious
Stephen "And devout men carried Stephen to his burial."(2) And yet
it was the body only which was deemed proper for burial, while the soul was
not buried together with the body; nevertheless the body alone was spoken of
by the common name. Similarly the blessed Jacob said to his sons "Bury
me with my fathers."(3) He did not say "Bury my body." Then
he went on "There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried
Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah."(4) He did not say "their
bodies." The names are common to bodies or souls, but nevertheless it
is only the bodies which he called by the common names. In this manner too
we constantly describe the shrines of the holy apostles, prophets and martyrs,
one it may be of Dionysius, another of Julianus another of Cosmas.(5) And yet
we know that only fragmentary remains of bodies lie there, while the souls
in diviner regions are at rest. Precisely the same custom is to be found in
common use, for such an one, We say, died; and such all one lies in this place;
although we know that the soul is immortal and does not share the tomb with
the body. In this sense the angel said "Come see the place where the Lord
lay"(6) not because he shut the Godhead in the tomb, but because he spoke
of the Lord's body by the Lord's name.

In proof
of this being the view of the holy Fathers let them mark the words of Athanasius,
illustrious
archbishop
of Alexandria, who adorned his episcopate
with confession. He exclaims "Life cannot die, but rather quickens the
dead."

Let them
hear too the words of the farfamed Damasus bishop of Rome, "If
anyone allege that on the cross pain was undergone by the Godhead and not by
the body with the soul, the form of the servant which He had taken in its completeness,
let him be anathema."(1)

Let them
hear too the very sacred and holy bishop of the Church of the Romans, the
lord Leo, who
has now written "The
Son of God suffered as He was capable of suffering, not according to the
nature which assumed but that which was
assumed. For the impassible nature assumed the passible body, and gave it for
us, to the end that He might work out our salvation and at the same time preserve
His own nature impassible."

And again "For He did not come to destroy His own nature but to save
ours."(2)

If therefore
they accuse us for saying that God can do what He wishes, but that He wishes
what is
becoming
to His own nature, and what is unbecoming He
neither wishes nor is capable of; let them accuse too these saints and all
the rest who maintain this position. Let them accuse even the Apostle who say's
'That by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie."(3)
And again "If we believe not, yet He abideth faithful: He cannot deny
Himself."(4)

Repeat
these passages to your opponents, and if they are convinced, praise the good
Lord for that,
by means of your
zeal, He has benefited them. If they
remain unconvinced, enter into no discussion with them about doctrines, for
it is forbidden by the divine apostle to "strive about words to no profit
but to the subverting of the hearers."(5) But do you keep inviolate the
teaching of the Gospels, that in the day of His appearing you may bring to
the righteous Judge what has been entrusted to you with its due interest, and
may hear the longed for words "Well done good and faithful servant; thou
hast been faithful over a few things I will make thee ruler over many things.
Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."(6)

CXLV. To the Monks of Constantinople.(7)

There
is nothing new or surprising in the fact that the men who have made their
tongues weapons against
our
God and Saviour should also aim their shahs
of falsehood against His right minded servants. It must needs be that the servants
who grieve sorely at the outrage inflicted on their Master should share it.
That so it should be they have been forwarned by their Lord Himself, Who consoles
His holy disciples with the words "If they have persecuted me they will
also persecute you."(1) "If they have called the Master of the house
Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of His household."(2) Then
He cheered them by pointing out that calumny is easily detected, for He went
on "There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed and hid that shall
not be known."(3) I have often seen the truth of the divine prediction,
but I see it with special clearness now. The authors of the calumny against
me, who have bought my destruction for large sums of money, have been distinctly
seen to be involved in the unsoundness of Valentinus and Bardesanes. They had
hoped to cloke their own iniquity if only they could whet their tongues on
the hone of falsehood in order to wound me. For ever since I saw that the heresy
long ago extinguished had been renewed by these men I never ceased to cry aloud,
hearing my testimony in private and in public, as well in social gatherings
as in the temples of God, and strive to confute their conspiracy against the
faith. They have consequently poured out their insults on my head, and allege
that I preach two sons. But they ought to have convicted me to my face, not
slandered me behind my back. They have done just the contrary. They tied me
band and foot at Cyrus by the imperial decree; they compelled the very righteous
judges to condemn me without a trial, and delivered their most equitable sentence
against a man who was five and thirty stages away. Such treatment was never
suffered by any criminal charged with witchcraft or robbery of the dead, by
murderer or by adulterer. But for the present I will leave the judges alone,
for the Lord is at hand "Who judges the world with righteousness and the
people with his truth;"(4) Who exacts an account not only of words and
deeds, but even of evil thoughts. But think it right to refute the false charge
which has been made. What proof have they of my asserting two sons? Had I been
one of the silent kind there might have been some ground for the suspicion,
but my task has been to contend on behalf of the apostolic decrees, to bring
the pasture of instruction to the Lord's flocks, and to this end I have written
five and thirty books interpreting the divine Scripture, and proving the falsehood
of the heresies. The falsehoods these men have concocted are therefore easy
of refutation. Tens on tens of thousands of hearers testify that I have taught
the truth of the doctrines of the Gospel, and for any one who likes to bring
them to the test my writings lie before the world. Not on behalf of a duality
of sons, but of the only begotten Son of God, against the heathen, against
Jews, against the recipients of the plague of Arius and Eunomius, against the
supporters of the madness of Apollinarius, against the victims of the corruption
of Marcion, I have never ceased to struggle; trying to convince the heathen
that the Eternal Son of the ever living God is Himself Creator of the Universe;
the Jews that about Him the prophets: uttered their predictions, the Arians
and Eunomians that He is of one substance, of one dignity and of equal power
with the Father; Marcion's mad adherents that He is not only good but just;
and Saviour not, as they fable, of another's works, but of His own. Once for
all, fighting against each heresy, I charge men to fall clown and worship the
one Son.

And what
need is there of many words, when it is possible to refute falsehood in few?
We provide
that those
who year by year come up for holy baptism should
carefully learn the faith set forth at Nicaea by the holy and blessed Fathers;
and initiating them as we have been bidden,(1) we baptize them in the name
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, pronouncing each name singly.
Furthermore when performing divine service in the churches, both at the beginning
and the decline of day and when dividing the day itself into three parts, we
glorify the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost.(2) If, as our slanderers allege,
we preach two sons, which do we glorify and which do we leave unworshipped?
It were the wildest folly to believe that there are two sons, and to give the
doxology to one alone. And who is so distraught as, while hearing the words
of the divine Paul "one Lord, one faith, one baptism,"(2) and again "there
is one Lord Jesus Christ by Whom are all things,"(4) to lay down the law
at variance with the teaching of the Spirit, and cut the one in two. But I
am prating unnecessarily, for these men, nurtured in falsehood as they are,
do not even dare to assert that they have ever heard me say anything of the
kind; but they affirm that I preach two sons because I confess the two natures
of our Master Christ. And they refuse to perceive that every human being has
both an immortal soul and a mortal body; yet no one has hitherto been found
to call Paul two Pauls because he has both soul and body, any more than Peter
two Peters or Abraham or Adam. Everyone recognises the distinction of the natures,
and does not call one man two Pauls. Precisely in the same way, when styling
our Lord Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God, God the Word incarnate,
both Son of God and Son of Man, as we have been taught by the divine Scripture,
we do not assert two sons, but we do confess the peculiar properties of the
Godhead and of the manhood. The party however who deny the nature assumed of
us men cannot hear these arguments without irritation.

It is
only right that I should point out from what sources they have derived this
impiety. Simon,
Menander,
Cerdo, and Marcion absolutely deny the incarnation,
and call the birth from a Virgin fable. Valentinus, however, Basilides, Bardesanes,
and Harmonius and their following, accept the conception of the Virgin and
the birth; but they deny that God the Word took anything from the Virgin, but
made as it were a transit through her as through a conduit, and appeared to
mankind in semblance only, and seeming to be a man, in like manner as He was
seen by Abraham and certain others of the ancients: Arius and Eunomius on the
contrary held that He assumed a body, but that the Godhead played the part
of the soul, in order that they may attribute to it what was lowly in His words
and deeds. Apollinarius did indeed assert that He assumed a soul with the body,
not the reasonable soul, but the soul which is called animal or phytic.(1)
Their contention is that the Godhead took the part of the mind. He had learnt
the distinction of soul and of mind from the philosophers that are without
while divine Scripture says that man consists of soul and body. For we read "And
the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life and man became a living soul."(2) And the Lord in the
sacred Gospels said to His apostles "Fear not them which kill the body
but are not able to kill the soul."(3)

So great
is the divergence between the doctrines. These men have now done their best
to outdo Apollinarius,
Arius and Eunomius, in their impiety and
have now endeavoured to plant anew the heresy sown of old by Valentinus and
Bardesanes, and afterwards uprooted by most excellent husbandmen. Like Valentinus
and Bardesanes they have denied that the body of our Lord was assumed of our
nature. But the Church, following the footprints of the Apostles, contemplates
in the Lord Christ both perfect Godhead and perfect manhood. For just as He
took a body, not that He needed a body, but by its means to give immortality
to all bodies; so too He took a soul, the guide of the body, that every soul
by its means might share His immutability. For even if souls are immortal,
they are not however immutable; for they undergo many and frequent changes,
as they experience pleasure, now from one object, and now from another. Whence
it cometh about that we err when we are changed and are inclined to what is
worse. But after the resurrection our bodies enjoy immortality and incorruptibility,
and our souls impassibility and immutability. For this reason the only begotten
Son of God took both a body and a soul, preserved them free from all blame,
and offered the sacrifice for the race. And this is why He is called our high
priest; and He is named high priest not as God but as man. He makes the offering
as man, and accepts the sacrifice with the Father and the Holy Spirit as God.
If only Adam's body had sinned, it alone should have benefited by the cure.
But since the soul not only shared in the sin but was first in the sin, for
first the thought forms an image of the sin and then carries it out by means
of the body, it was just, I ween, that the soul too should be healed. But it
is perhaps superfluous to demonstrate these points by reasoning, when the divine
Scripture clearly proclaims them. This doctrine is distinctly taught by the
holy David and the very divine Peter, the one foretelling from distant ages,
and the other interpreting his prediction. The words of the first of the apostles
are "David therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with
an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, He
would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; he seeing this before spake of
the resurrection of Christ that His soul was not left in hell neither His flesh
did see corruption."(1) Now he has given us much instruction on the same
point in these few words. First he states that the assumed nature derives its
descent from the loins of David; secondly that He took not a body only, but
also an immortal soul, and thirdly that He delivered body and soul to death,
and, after taking them again, raised them as He would. His own words are "Destroy
this temple and in three days I will raise it up."(1) But we have learnt
that the divine nature is immortal. What suffered was the passible, and the
impassible remained impassible. For God the Word was made math not to render
the impassible nature passible, but on the passible nature, by means of the
Passion, to bestow the boon of impassibility. And the Lord Himself in the holy
Gospels at one time says "I have power to lay down my life and I have
power to take it again, no man taketh it from me but I lay it down of myself;" "That
I may take it again."(2) Anti again "Therefore doth my Father love
me because I lay down my life for the sheep,"(3) and again "Now is
my soul troubled"(4) "my soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death."(5)
and of His body He says "The bread that I will give is my flesh which
I will give for the life of the world,"(6) and when He delivered the divine
mysteries and broke the symbol and distributed it, He added "This is my
body which is being broken for you for the remission of sins,"(7) and
again "This is my blood which is shed for many for the remission of sins,"(8)
and again "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood
ye have no life in you"(9) and "Whosoever eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood hath eternal life" "in himself" he adds.(10) Innumerable
passages of the same character may be quoted, both in the old Testament find
the new, pointing out the assumption both of the body and of the soul, and
that they are descended from Abraham and David. Joseph of Arimathea when he
came to Pilate begged the body of Jesus, and the fourfold authority(11) of
the holy Gospels tells us how he received the body, wrapped it in the linen
cloth, and committed it to the tomb. I do, indeed, sorrow and lament that I
am compelled by the attacks of error to adduce against men supposed to be of
one and the same faith with myself the arguments which I have already urged
against the victims of the plague of Marcion,--of whom, by God's grace, I have
converted more than ten thousand, and brought them to Holy Baptism. What child
of the church ever had any doubts on these points? Who has not cited this teaching
of the holy Fathers? The works of the great Basil are full of it; as well,
as those of his fellow soldiers Gregory and Amphilochius, and of those who
in the West have been illustrious teachers of grace, Damasus, bishop of great
Rome, and Ambrose of Milan; and Cyprian of Carthage who for the sake of these
doctrines won the martyr's crown. Five times was the famous Athanasius driven
from his flock and compelled to dwell in exile; and in the cause of these doctrines
strove too his master Alexander. Eustathius, Meletius, and Flavianus, luminaries
of the East, and Ephraim, harp of the Spirit, who daily waters the people of
Syria with the streams of grace; John and Atticus, lend heralds of the truth;
and men of an earlier age than they, Ignatius, Polycarp, Irenaeus, Justin,
and Hippolytus, of whom the more part not only shine at the head of the company
of bishops, but also adorn the martyr's band.

He, too,
who now rules great Rome and diffuses in all directions from the West the
rays of right
teaching,
the most holy Leo, has expressed to me this
distinctive mark of the faith in his own letters. All these have clearly taught
that the only begotten Son of God and everlasting God, ineffably begotten of
the Father, is one Son; and that after the incarnation He was called both Son
of man and man, not because He was changed into manhood, for His nature is
immutable, but because He took what was ours. They teach too that He was both
impassible and immortal as God, and mortal and passible as man; but after the
resurrection even in relation to His humanity He received impassibility and
immortality, for, though the body remained a body, still it is impassible and
immortal, verily a divine body and glorified with divine glory. This is distinctly
told us by the blessed Paul in the words "For our conversation is in heaven
from whence also we look for the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall
change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto the body of His glory."(2)
He does not say to "His glory" but to "the body of His glory," and
the Lord Himself, when He had said to His apostles "There be some standing
here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of man coming in
His Father's glory,"(1) took them after six days into an exceeding high
mountain, and was transfigured before them, and His face became as the sun,
and His raiment was bright like the light.(2) By these means He shewed the
manner of the second advent. He taught that the assumed nature is not uncircumscribed
(for this is characteristic of the Godhead alone) but that it shall send forth
flashes of the divine glory, and emit rays of light transcending the powers
of the sense of sight. With this glory He was taken up; with this the angels
said that He should come; for their words were "He who was taken from
you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven."(2)
When moreover He was seen by the divine apostles after the resurrection, He
shewed them both hands and feet; and to Thomas He shewed also His side and
the wounds of the nails and of the spear. For on account of those men who positively
deny the assumption of the flesh, and further of those others who assert that
after the resurrection the nature of the body was changed into the nature of
Godhead, He preserved unaltered the prints of the nails and of the spear. And
while raising all other bodies free from every disfigurement,(4) in His own
body He left the marks of His sufferings. to the end that deniers of the assumption
of the body may be convicted of their error by means of His sufferings; and
holders of the notion that His body was changed into another nature may be
taught by the print of the nails that it abides in its own proper qualities.
Suppose any one to imagine that he has a proof that the body of the Lord did
not remain a body after the resurrection in the fact that He came in to the
disciples when the doors were shut, let such an one remember how He walked
upon the sea while His body was still mortal, how He was born after keeping
the seals of virginity intact, and how again when encircled by them that were
plotting against Him He frequently escaped from their hands. But why need I
mention the Lord, who was not only man, but God before the ages, and to whom
it was easy to do whatsoever He would? Let them tell how Habakkuk was translated
from Judaea into Babylon in a moment of time and passed through the covering
of the den, and brought the food to Daniel, and returned again. without destroying
the seals of the den.(5) It is sheer foolishness to enquire into the manner
of the miracles of the Lord, but in addition to what has been said it ought
also to be known that after the resurrection our bodies also will be incorruptible
and immortal, and being released from what is earthly will become light and
aethereal. This moreover is distinctly taught us by the divine Paul in the
words "It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption, it is sown
in weakness it is raised in power; it is sown in dishonour it is raised in
glory; it is sown a natural body it is raised a spiritual body"' and in
another place "We shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in
the air."(2) If then the bodies of the saints become light and aethereal
and easily travel through the air, we cannot wonder that the Lord's body united
to the Godhead of the only begotten, when, after the resurrection, it had become
immortal, entered in when the doors were shut.

Countless other proofs might be quoted without difficulty from apostles and
prophets. But what has been already said is enough to show the drift of my
teaching. I believe in one Father, one Son and one Holy Ghost; and I confess
one Godhead, one Lordship, one substance and three hypostases. For the incarnation
of the only begotten did not add to the number of the Trinity, and make the
Trinity a quaternity, but, even after the incarnation the Trinity was still
a Trinity. And while confessing that the only begotten Son of God was made
man I do not deny the nature which He took, but confess, as I have said, both
the nature which took and the nature which was taken. The union did not confound
the properties of the natures. For if the air by receiving the light through
all its parts does not cease to be air, nor yet at the same time destroy the
nature of the light, for with our eves we behold the light and by our feeling
we recognise the air, as it meets us cold or hot, or moist or dry, so it were
sheer folly to call the union of the Godhead and the manhood confusion. If
created natures which share at once subordinate anti temporal existence, when
united and in some sense mingled, yet remain unimpaired, and, when the light
withdraws, the nature of the air is left alone, much more proper is it, I apprehend,
for the nature which fashioned all things, when conjoined with and united to
the nature which it assumed from us, to be acknowledged to continue itself
in its purity, and in like manner to preserve unimpaired that which it had
assumed. Gold, too, when brought in contact with the fire, participates both
in the colour and power of fire, but it does not lose its own nature, but at
the same time remains gold and has the active qualities of fire. In this manner
also the Lord's body is a body, but impassible, incorruptible, immortal, of
the Lord, divine and glorified with the divine glory. It is not separated from
the Godhead, nor yet is of any one else, save of the only begotten Son of God
Himself. For it does not show to us another person, but the only-begotten Himself
clad in our nature.

This is the doctrine which I am continually preaching. They on the other hand
who deny the incarnation wrought on our behalf have called me a heretic, adopting
a course something like that of unchaste females, who, while they sell their
own charms, assail honest women with the insults of their profession, and apply
language proper to their own wantonness to women who hold such wantonness in
abhorrence. This is how Egypt has acted. She has herself fallen willingly into
the thraldom of base desire. She has lavished her servile adulation on a man
of chaste character. Then, failing to entice him by her wiles, or to trap him
in the snares of her voluptuous passion, she describes one who is faithful
to purity as an adulterer.

But these
men will be called to account by God, as well for their devices against the
faith as
for the snares
they have laid against me. I only charge
those who have been influenced by the false accusations uttered against me
to keep one ear for the accused, and not to give both to the accusers. In this
manner they will fulfil the divine law which lays down "Thou shall not
raise a false report,"(3) and "Judge righteously between every man
and his brother."(2) In these words the divine law charges us not to believe
the calumnies uttered against the absent but to judge the accused face to face.

CXLVI. To John the OEconomus.(3)

Rest and a life free from care are very grateful to me. I have therefore blocked
the door of the monastery, and decline intercourse with my friends.

But I have received information that fresh attacks are being made against
the Faith of the Gospels, and therefore conclude that there may be danger in
my silence. When wrong has been done some mortal prince, not only the guilty
authors of the outrage but they also who have been standing by and made no
effort to drive off the assailants, are in peril of punishment: What penalty
then ought not to be undergone by men who can venture to look lightly on the
utterance of blasphemy against our God and Saviour? This is the fear which
has impelled me now to write and expose the innovations of which I have been
informed.

It is
said that a common report in the city represents that after certain presbyters
had offered prayer,
and concluded it in the wonted manner, while
some said "For to Thee belongs glory and to thy Christ and to the Holy
Ghost;" and others "Through grace and loving kindness of thy Christ,
with whom belongs glory to Thee with thy holy Spirit," the very wise archdeacon
prohibited the use of the expression, "the Christ" and said that
the "only begotten" ought to be glorified. If this is true it were
impossible to exceed the impiety. For he either divides the one Lord Jesus
Christ into two sons and regards the only begotten Son as lawful and natural,
but the Christ as adopted and spurious, and consequently unmeet for being honoured
in doxology; or else he is endeavouring to support the heresy which has now
burst in on us with the riot of wild revelry. Had a grievous tempest been now
oppressing us, any one might have supposed that the blasphemer suited his blasphemy
to the necessity of the moment. through fear of the power of the originators
of the heresy. But now that He who is blasphemed has rebuked the winds and
the sea, and blessed the storm-tossed churches with a calm, while everywhere
by land and sea the proclamation of the apostles is preached, what room is
there for the blasphemy? While not even they who have lately basely inserted
among the doctrines of the Church that flesh and godhead are of one and the
same nature have ever forbidden the offering of praise to the Lord Christ.
This fact may be easily ascertained from those who have returned thence. A
man holding the foremost place in the ecclesiastical rank ought to have known
the divine Scripture, and to have learnt from it that just as the heralds of
the truth rank the only begotten Son with the Father, so accordingly using
the title of "the Christ" instead of that of "Son" they
number Him sometimes with the Father and sometimes with the Holy Ghost; for
the Christ is none other than the only begotten Son of God. So we may quote
the divine Paul writing to the Corinthians, but teaching the world, that "There
is one God the Father of whom are all things and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom
are all things."(1) Thus he calls the same person, Christ, Jesus, Lord,
and Creator of all things. And writing to the Thessalonians he says "Now
God Himself and our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way unto you."(2)
And in his second epistle to the same he puts the Christ before the Father,
not to invert the order, but to teach that the order of the haines does not
indicate a distinction of dignity and nature. His words are "Now our Lord
Jesus Christ Himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath
given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your
hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work."(3) And at the end
of his Epistle to the Romans after certain exhortations he adds "I beseech
you brethren for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake and for the love of the spirit."(4)
Now if he had known the Christ as being any other than the Son he would not
have put Him before the Holy Ghost. Writing to the Corinthians, at the very
beginning of his letter, he mentions the name of Christ as alone sufficient
to influence the faithful. "Now I beseech you brethren by the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ that ye all speak the same thing"(5) and when writing
to them a second time he thus concludes "The peace of our Lord Jesus Christ
and the love of God the Father and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with
you all."(6) Here he puts the name of Christ not only before the Spirit,
but also before the Father and this in all the churches is the beginning of
the Liturgy of the Mystery.

According,
then, to this extraordinary regulation the august name of our God and Saviour,
Jesus Christ,
ought to
be omitted from the mystic writings. But
it is unnecessary to say more on this point. The opening of every one of his
letters is distinguished by the divine Apostle with this address. At one time
it is "Paul a servant of Jesus Christ called to be an apostle."'
At another "Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ."(8) At
another "Paul a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ."(9)
And suiting his benediction to his exordium he deduces it from the same source
and links the title of the Son with God the Father, saying "Grace to you
and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."(10) And he graces
the conclusion of his letters with the blessing "The grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ be with you all, amen."(1)

Copious
additional evidence may be found whereby it may be learnt without difficulty
that our Lord Jesus
Christ is no other person than the Son which
completes the Trinity. For the same before the ages was only begotten Son and
God the Word, and after the resurrection He was called Jesus and Christ. receiving
the names from the facts. Jesus means Saviour; "Thou shall call His name
Jesus for He shall save His people from their sins."(2)

He is
named Christ from being as man anointed with the Holy Ghost, and called our
High Priest, Apostle,
Prophet
and King. Long ago the divine Moses exclaimed "The
Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet, from the midst of thee, of
thy brethren, like unto me."(3) And the divine David cries "The Lord
hath sworn and will not repent, Thou art a priest forever after the order of
Melchisedek."(4) This prophecy is confirmed by the divine Apostle.(5)
And again "seeing then that we have a great High Priest that has passed
into the heavens. Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession."(6)

That as
God, He is king before the ages that prophetic minstrelsy teaches us in the
words "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; the sceptre
of Thy kingdom is a right sceptre."(7)

His majesty
as man is also shown us. For having the sovereignty of all things as God
and Creator,
He assumes
this majesty as man, wherefore it is added "Thou
lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness, therefore God thy God hath anointed
thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows."(8) And in the second
psalm the anointed one himself says "Yet was I set as king by Him upon
the holy hill of Sion, I will declare the decree of the Lord. The Lord hath
said unto me 'Thou art my Son this day have I begotten Thee; ask of me and
I shall give Thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts
of the earth for thy possession.'"(9) This He said as man, for as man
He receives what as God He possesses. And at the very beginning of the psalm
the gift of prophecy ranks Him with God the Father in the words "Why do
the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing. The kings of the earth
set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against
His anointed."(10)

Let no
one then foolishly suppose that the Christ is any other than the only begotten
Son. Let us not
imagine
ourselves wiser than the gift of the Spirit.
Let us hear the words of the great Peter, "Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God."(1) Let us hear the Lord Christ confirming this confession,
for "On this rock," He says, "I will build my church and the
gates of Hell shall not prevail against it."(2) Wherefore too the wise
Paul, most excellent master builder of the churches, fixed no other foundation
than this. "I," he says, "as a wise master builder have laid
the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how
he buildeth thereon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid,
which is Jesus Christ."(3) How then can they think of any other foundation,
when they are bidden not to fix a foundation, but to build on that which is
laid? The divine writer recognises Christ as the foundation, and glories in
this title, as when he says, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless
I live; yet not I but Christ liveth in me."(4) And again "To me to
live is Christ and to die is gain,"(5) and again "For I determined
not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified."(6)
And a little before he says, "But we preach Christ crucified to the Jews
a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called
both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God."(7)
And in his Epistle to the Galatians be writes, "But when it pleased God
who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace to reveal
His Son in me that I might preach Him among the heathen."(8) But when
writing to the Corinthians he does not say we preach "the Son" but "Christ
crucified," herein doing no violence to his commission, but recognising
the same to be Jesus, Christ, Lord, only begotten, and God the Word. For the
same reason too at the beginning of his letter to the Romans he calls himself "servant
of Jesus Christ" and describes himself as "separated unto the gospel
of God, which He had promised afore by His prophets in the Holy Scriptures,
concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David
according to the flesh; and declared to be the Son of God with powers"(1)
and so on. He calls the same both Jesus Christ, and Son of David, and Son of
God, as God and Lord of all, and yet in the middle of his epistle, after making
mention of the Jews, he adds, "whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning
the flesh Christ came, who is over all God blessed for ever, amen."(2)
Here he says that He who according to the flesh derived His descent froth the
Jews is eternal God and is praised by the right minded as Lord of all created
things. The same teaching is given us in the Apostle's words to the excellent
Titus "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the
great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ."(3) Here he calls the same both
Saviour, and great God, and Jesus Christ. And in another place he writes, "In
the kingdom of Christ and of God."(4) Moreover the chorus of the angels
announced to the shepherds " Unto you is born this day in the city of
David ... Christ the Lord."(5)

But to
men who meditate on God's law day and night, it is indeed needless to write
all the proofs
of this
kind; the above are sufficient to persuade
even the most obstinate opponents not to divide the divine titles. One point,
however, I cannot endure to omit. He is alleged to have said that there are
many Christs but one Son. Into this error I suppose he fell through ignorance.
For if he had read the divine Scripture, he would have known that the title
of the Son has also been bestowed by our bountiful Lord on many. The lawgiver
Moses, the writer of the ancient history, says "And the sons of God saw
the daughters of men that they were fair and they took them wives of them,"(6)
and the God of all Himself said to this Prophet "Thou shalt say unto Pharaoh,
Israel is my son even my first-born."(7) In the great song he says "Rejoice
O ye nations with His people and let all the sons of God be strong in Him;"(8)
and by the mouth of the prophet Isaiah He says "I have nourished and brought
up sons (children) and they have rebelled against me;"(9) and through
the thrice blessed David "I have said ye are gods and all of you are children
of the Most High,"(10) and to the Romans the wise Paul wrote in this manner, "For
as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have
not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the
I spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. For the Spirit itself beareth
witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. And if children,
then heirs; heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ: if so be that we suffer
with Him that we may be also glorified together;"(1) and to the Galatians
he writes "And because ye are sons God hath sent forth the spirit of His
Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant
but a son; and if a son then an heir of God through Jesus Christ."(2)
The lesson he gives to the Ephesians is "in love having predestinated
us into the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself."(3)

If then,
because the name of the Christ is common, we ought not to glorify the Christ
as God, we shall
equally
shrink from worshipping Him as Son, since
this also is a name which has been bestowed upon many. And why do I say the
Son? The very name of God itself has been given by God to many. "The Lord
the God of gods hath spoken and called the earth."(4) And "I have
said Ye are gods,"(5) and "Thou shalt not revile the gods."(6)
Many too have appropriated tiffs name to themselves. The daemons who have deceived
mankind have given this title to idols; whence Jeremiah exclaims, "The
gods that have not made the heavens and the earth even they shall perish from
the earth and from under these heavens;"(7) and again "They made
to themselves gods of silver and gods of gold;"(8) and the prophet Isaiah
when he had mocked the making of the idols, and said " He burneth part
thereof in the fire with part thereof he eateth flesh he warmeth himself and
saith Aha I am warm I have seen the fire,"(9) went on "and the residue
thereof he maketh a god and falleth down unto it and saith 'Deliver me for
thou art my god'"(10) and so the prophet laments over them and says "Know
that their heart is ashes."(11) And the Psalmist David has taught us to
sing "For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the
heavens."(12)

But this common use of titles gives no offence to men who are instructed in
true religion. We are aware that the daemons have falsely bestowed upon themselves
and on idols the divine name, while the saints have received this honour of
free grace.

In reality
and by nature it is the God of all, and His only-begotten Son and the Holy
Spirit which
are God.
This is distinctly taught us by the admirable
Paul in the words "For though there be that are called gods whether in
heaven or in earth, as there are gods many and lords many, but to us there
is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him; and one
Lord by whom are all things and we by Him."(1) And the Holy Spirit is
called the Spirit of God and so also is the soul of man, for, it is written, "His
breath goeth forth,"(2) and "O ye spirits and souls of the righteous
bless ye the Lord,"(3) and the Psalmist David called the angels spirits. "Who
maketh His angels spirits and His ministers a flame of fire."(4) Why indeed
do I mention the angels and the souls of men? Even the daemons are so called
by the Lord "He shall take unto him seven other spirits more wicked than
himself and they shall enter in, and the last state of that man shall be worse
than the first."(5) But even this application of the name does not offend
the pious reader, for the Father and His only begotten Son and His Holy Spirit
are one God by nature; and the divine Word made man, our Lord Jesus Christ,
is by nature one Son, only begotten of the Father; and the Comforter who completes
the number of the Trinity is one Holy Ghost. Thus though many are named fathers,
we worship one Father, the Father before the ages, who Himself gave this title
to men, as the Apostle says, "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom every fatherhood in heaven and earth is named."(6)
Let us not then, because others are called christs, rob ourselves of the worship
of our Lord Jesus Christ. For just as though many are called gods and fathers,
there is one God and Father over all and before the ages; and though many are
called sons, there is one real and natural Son; and though many are styled
spirits there is one Holy Ghost; just so though many are called christs there
is one Lord Jesus Christ by Whom are all things. And very properly does the
Church cling to this name; for she has heard Paul, escorter of the Bride, exclaiming "I
have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin
to Christ,"(7) and again "Husbands love your wives as Christ also
loved the Church,"(1) and again "For this cause shall a man leave
his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall
be one flesh. This is a great mystery; but I speak concerning Christ and the
Church."(2) Listen to him as he says "Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us,"(3) and elsewhere "Know
ye not that so many of us as were baptized unto Jesus Christ were baptized
into His death,"(4) and in another place, "For as many of you as
have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ,"(5) and again "Put
ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil
the lust thereof."(6)

They who
are blessed by the boons of God and have learnt to know these passages and
others like them,
kindled
with warm love for their bountiful Master, constantly
carry on their lips this His dearest name and cry in the words of the Song
of Songs "My beloved is mine and I am his;" "I sat down under
his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste."(7)
And besides all this that name of ours which we love so well we have derived
from the name of Christ. We are called Christians.(8)

Of this
name the Lord of all says, "The Lord God shall call His servants
by another name which shall be blessed on the earth"(9) and the following
is the reason why the Church specially clings to this name. When the only-begotten
Son of God was made man, then He was named Christ, then human nature received
the beams of intellectual light; then the heralds of the truth shed their beams
upon the world. Teachers of the Church, however, constantly used the names
of the only begotten without distinction; at one time they glorify the Father
the Son and the Holy Ghost; at another the Father with Christ and the Holy
Ghost; yet as far as the sense is concerned there is here no difference. Wherefore
after the Lord had commanded to baptize in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Ghost the blessed Peter said to them who received his preaching
and asked what they must do, "Believe and be baptized every one of you
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,"(1) as though this name contained
in itself all the potency of the divine command. The same teaching is clearly
given us by the great Basil, luminary of the Cappadocians,(2) or rather of
the world. His words are "the ham e of Christ is the confession of the
whole." It indicates at once the Father, who anointed, the Son, who was
anointed, and the Holy Ghost whereby He was anointed. Furthermore the thrice
blessed Fathers assembled in council at Nicaea, after saying that we must believe
in one God, the Father, added "and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only
begotten Son of God." Thereby they teach that the Lord Jesus Christ is
Himself the only begotten Son of God.

To what
has been said it must also be added that we must not affirm that after the
ascension the
Lord Christ
is not Christ but only begotten Son. The divine
Gospels and the history of the Acts and the Epistles of the Apostle himself
were, as we know, written after the ascension. It is after the ascension that
the divine Paul exclaims "Seeing then that we have a great High Priest
that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our
profession."(3) And again, "For Christ is not entered into the holy
places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into Heaven
itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us."(4) And again after
speaking of our hope in God he adds" which hope we have as an anchor both
sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; whither the
forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus made an High Priest for ever after
the order of Melchisedec."(1) And when, writing to the blessed Titus about
the second advent he says," Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious
appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ."(2) And to the
Thessalonians he wrote in similar terms "For they themselves show of us
what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how we turned to God from idols
to serve the living and true God; and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom
He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come."(3)
And again "And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward
another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you: to the end he may stablish
your hearts unblamable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints."(4) And again when writing
to the same a second time he says, "Now we beseech you, brethren, by the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him."(5)
And a little further on when predicting the destruction of antichrist he adds, "Whom
the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with
the brightness of his coming."(6) And when exhorting the Romans to concord
he says, "But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at
naught thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
For it is written, as I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and
every tongue shall confess to God."(7) And the Lord Himself when announcing
His second advent besides other things says too this "Then if any man
shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For as the
lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall
also the coming of the Son of Man be."(8)

And after
the immortality and incorruptibility of His body He called Himself Son of
Man, naming Himself
from the nature
which was seen, inasmuch as the
divine nature is indeed invisible to angels, as the Lord Himself had said "No
one hath seen God at any time."(9) And to the great Moses He said "There
shall no man see me and live."(10)

The words "Henceforth know we no man after the flesh; yea, though we
have known Christ after the flesh; yet now henceforth know we Him no more,"(1)
were not written by the divine Apostle in order to annul the assumed nature,
but for the confirmation of our own future incorruption, immortality, and spiritual
life.

The Apostle
therefore continues "Therefore if any man be in Christ he
is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold all things are become
new."(2) He speaks of what is to be in the future as though it had already
come to pass. We have not yet been gifted with immortality, but we shall be;
and when so gifted we shall not become bodiless, but we shall put on immortality. "For" says
the divine Apostle, "we would not be unclothed, but clothed upon, that
mortality might be swallowed up of life."(3) And again "For this
corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality."(4)
Thus he did not speak of the Lord as bodiless, but taught us to believe that
even the visible nature is incorruptible, and glorified with the divine glory.
This instruction he has given us yet more clearly in the Epistle to the Philippians; "For
our conversation" he writes "is in heaven; from whence also we look
for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change our vile body, that
it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body."(5) By these words he
teaches us distinctly that the body of the Lord is a body, but a divine body,
and glorified with the divine glory.

Let us,
then, not shun the name whereby we enjoy salvation, and whereby all things
are made new,
as says
our teacher himself in his Epistle to the Ephesians,--"According
to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself; that in the dispensation
of the fulness of time He might gather together in one all things in Christ,
both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in Him."(6) Let
us rather learn from this blessed language how we are bound to glorify our
benefactor, by connecting the name of Christ with our God and Father. In his
Epistle to the Romans the Apostle says "my gospel, and the preaching of
Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret
since the world began, but now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the
prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to
all nations for the obedience of faith; to God only will be glory through Jesus
Christ forever. Amen."(1) Writing to the Ephesians he thus gives praise--"Now
unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think,
according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the Church
by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.And a little before
he says, "For this cause I bow my knee unto the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named."(3) And
considerably farther on he says "Giving thanks always for all things unto
God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."(4) And when
he requites with benediction the liberality of the Philippians he says "But
my God shall supply all your need according to His riches m glory by Christ
Jesus."(5) And for the Hebrews he prayed, "Now the God of peace,
that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great shepherd
of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect
in every good work, to do His will, working in you that which is well pleasing
in His sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen."(6)
And not only when glorifying, but also when exhorting and protesting, the Apostle
conjoins the Christ with God the Father. To the blessed Timothy he exclaims "I
charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ."(7) And again "I
give thee charge in the sight of God who quickeneth all things, and before
Jesus Christ, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession; that thou
keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of our
Lord Jesus Christ; which in His times He shall shew, who is the blessed and
only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords; who only hath immortality,
dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen,
nor can see; to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen."(8)

These
are the lessons we have learnt from the divine Apostles; this is the teaching
given us by
John and Matthew,
those mighty rivers of the gospel message.
The latter says "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ the son of
David, the son of Abraham;"(9) and the former when he shewed the things
which were before the ages wrote, "In the beginning was the Word and the
Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with
God. All things were made by Him."

CXLVII.(2) To John, Bishop of Germanicia.

Immediately
on receipt of your holiness's former letter I replied. About the present
state of affairs,
it
is impossible to entertain any good hope. I apprehend
that this is the beginning of the general apostasy. For when we see that those
who lament what was done as they say, by violence, at Ephesus, show no signs
of repentance, but abide by their unlawful deeds and are building up a superstructure
at once of injustice and of impiety; when we see that the rest take no concerted
action to deny their deeds and do not refuse to hold communion with men who
abide by their unlawful action, what hope of good is it possible for us to
entertain? Had they been expressing their admiration of what has happened as
though all had been well and rightly done, it would only have been proper for
them to abide by what they themselves commend. But if, as they say, they are
lamenting what has been done and stating it to have been done by force and
violence, why in the world do they not repudiate what has been unlawfully done?
Why is the present, which lasts for such a little time, preferred before what
is sure to come to pass? Why in the world do they openly lie and deny that
any innovation has been introduced into doctrine? On account of what murders
and witchcrafts have I been expelled? What adulteries did the man commit? What
tombs did the man violate? It is perfectly clear even to outsiders that it
was for doctrine that I and the rest were expelled. Why the Lord Domnus too,
because he would not accept "the Chapters"(3) was deposed by these
excellent persons who called them admirable and confessed that they abided
by them. I had read their propositions, and they rejected me as the head and
front of the heresy and expelled others for the same reason.(4)

What has
happened proves plainly enough that they supposed the Saviour to have laid
down the law of
practical
virtue rather for Hamaxobians(1) than for
them. When some men had given in charges against Candidianus, the Pisidian,(2)
accusing him of several acts of adultery and other iniquities, it is said that
the president of the council remarked, "If you are bringing accusation
on points of doctrine, we receive your charges; we have not come here to decide
about adulteries." Accordingly Athenius and Athanasius(3) who had been
expelled by the Eastern Synod were bidden to return to their own churches;
just as though our Saviour had laid down no laws about conduct, and had only
ordered us to observe doctrines--which those most sapient persons have been
foremost in corrupting. Let them then cease to mock; let them no longer attempt
to conceal the impiety which they have confirmed by blows as well as by words.
If this is not the case, let them tell us the reasons of the massacres; let
them own in writing the distinction between the natures of our Saviour, and
that the union is without confusion; let them declare that after the union
both Godhead and manhood remained unimpaired. "God is not mocked."(4)
Let the chapters be denied which they have often repudiated, and now at Ephesus
have sanctioned. Do not let them trick your holiness by their lies. They used
to praise my utterances at Antioch, being brethren, and when made readers,
and ordained deacons, presbyters and bishops; and at the end of my discourse
they used to embrace me and kiss me, on head, on breast, on hands; and some
of them would cling to my knees, calling my doctrine apostolic,--the very doctrine
that they have now condemned, and anathematized. They used to call me luminary,
not only of the East, but of the whole world, and now I forsooth have been
proscribed and, so far as lies in their power, I have not even bread to eat.
They have anathematized even all who converse with me. But the man whom but
a little while ago they deposed and called Valentinian and Apollinarian they
have honoured as a martyr of the faith, rolling at his feet, asking his pardon
and calling him spiritual father. Do even woodlice change their colour to match
the stones or chameleons their skin to suit the leaves, as these men do their
mind to match the times? I give up to them see, dignity, rank, and all the
luxury of this life. On the side of the apostolic doctrines I await the evils
which they deem terrible, finding sufficient consolation in the thought of
the judgment of the Lord. For I hope that for the sake of this injustice the
Lord will remit me many of my sins.

Now I implore your holiness to beware of the fellowship of iniquity and to
insist on their repudiation of what has been done. If they refuse shun them
as traitors to the faith. That your reverence should wait awhile to see if
the tempest will pass, we have not thought subject for blame. But after the
ordination of the primate of the East(1) every man's mind will be made manifest.
Deign, Sir, to pray for me. At this time I am sorely in want of that help that
I may hold out against all that is being devised against me.

CXLVIII
in the Edition of Garnerius is "the minute of the most holy bishop
Cyril, delivered to Posidonius, when sent by him to Rome, in the matter of
Nestorius." (Cyrill. Ep. XI. tom. lxxvii. 85.)

CXLIX
is "Copy of
the Letter written by John, bishop of Antioch, to Nestorius."

This letter has sometimes been supposed to have been really composed by Theodoret.(2)

CL.Letter of Theodoretus, bishop of Cyrus, to Joannes, bishop of Antioch.(3)

I have been much distressed at reading the anathematisms which you have sent
to request me to refute in writing, and to make plain to all their heretical
sense. I have been distressed at the thought that one appointed to the shepherd's
office, entrusted with the charge of so great a flock and appointed to heal
the sick among his sheep, is both himself unsound, and that to a terrible degree,
and is endeavouring to infect his lambs with his disease and treats the sheep
of his folds with greater cruelty than that of wild beasts. They, indeed, tear
and rend the sheep that are dispersed and separated from the flock; but be
in its very midst, and while thought to be its saviour and its guardian introduces
secret error among the victims of their confidence in him. Against an open
assault it is possible to take precautions, but when an attack is made in the
guise of friendship, its victim is found off his guard and hurt is easily done
him. Hence foes who make war from within are far more dangerous than those
who attack from without.

I am yet more grieved that it should be in the name of true religion and with
the dignity of a shepherd that he should give utterance to his heretical and
blasphemous words, and renew that vain and impious teaching of Apollinarius
which was long ago stamped out. Besides all this there is the fact that he
not only supports these views but even dares to anathematize those who decline
to participate in his blasphemies;--if he is really the author of these productions
and they have not proceeded from some enemy of the truth who has composed them
in his name and, as the old story has it, flung the apple of discord(2) in
the midst, and so fanned the flame on high.

But whether this composition comes from himself or from some other in his
name, I, for my part, by the aid of the light of the Holy Ghost, in the investigation
of this heretical and corrupt opinion, according to the measure of the power
given me, have refuted them as best I could. I have confronted them with the
teaching of evangelists and apostles. I have exposed the monstrosity of the
doctrine, and proved how vast is its divergence from divine truth. This I have
done by comparing it with the words of the Holy Spirit, and pointing out what
strange and jarring discord there is between it and the divine.

Against
the hardihood of this anathematizing, thus much I will say, that Paul, the
clear-voiced
herald of truth, anathematized
those who had corrupted the
evangelic and apostolic teaching and boldly did so against the angels, not
against those who abided by the laws laid down by theologians; these he strengthened
with blessings, saying, "And as many as walk according to this rule, peace
be on them and mercy and on the Israel of God."(1) Let then the author
of these writings reap from the Apostle's curse the due rewards of his labours
and the harvest of his seeds of heresy. We will abide in the teaching of the
holy Fathers.

To this letter I bare appended my counter arguments, that on reading them
you may judge whether I have effectively destroyed the heretical propositions.
Setting down each of the anathematisms by itself, I have annexed the counter
statement that readers may easily understand, and that the refutation of the
dogmas may he clear.(2)